


Pollen

by neon



Series: Florist & Merc AU [8]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Multiple Orgasms, Sex Pollen, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:00:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25904749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neon/pseuds/neon
Summary: Aerith is a florist. Cloud is a mercenary. (AU, Established Relationship)“What the-?” Coughing and sputtering, Aerith fanned a hand through the pink particles that clouded her vision, while the plant she’d stooped to take a closer look atcackled,andstood, and ran away on its two large roots.Well,thatwas weird, Aerith thought. She patted her dress to knock any more dust off, then shrugged and headed down the trail for home.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Series: Florist & Merc AU [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798867
Comments: 6
Kudos: 53





	Pollen

**Author's Note:**

> Puuure smut. And this is sex pollen, so a warning for dubious consent comes with that.
> 
> The context for this AU is:  
> \- Cloud and Aerith are in a relationship.  
> \- Aerith was an orphan. Cloud was a SOLDIER.  
> \- Aerith is now a florist, and Cloud is now a mercenary.  
> \- Most main events in canon never happened, or never involved Cloud or Aerith.  
> \- Aerith is still a Cetra, but no one ever discovers that exact fact, including her.  
> \- Cloud and Aerith live in the same house as Aerith's in FF7R, but it's not in Sector 5.

“What the-?” Coughing and sputtering, Aerith fanned a hand through the pink particles that clouded her vision, while the plant she’d stooped to take a closer look at _cackled,_ and _stood_ , and ran away on its two large roots.

Well, _that_ was weird, Aerith thought. She patted her dress to knock any more dust off, then shrugged and headed down the trail for home.

Standing on the porch, she set down her basket, and lifted her hat to wave the brim in front of her flushed face. Sun must’ve been beating down hotter than she’d thought. She felt woozy from being under it for so long. Or, maybe…

Maybe… she just needed some water.

Her hand shook when she turned the faucet for the sink. She curved to bring cold water to her face, and then she held her cheeks. She still felt hot. And, well.

Wet.

She heard at her back the door creak in swinging open. Cloud walked inside the house.

He said, "Hey," shuffling through the doorway, until his boots tapped to a stop. “...You okay? Thought I heard you, y'know. Calling to me.”

Maybe she had without knowing. Aerith, still holding her cheeks, turned, and at the sight of Cloud felt a staggering warmth bloom throughout her stomach and legs.

She squeaked, “ _Oh_.” _That_ was what she needed.

Her eyes stayed on Cloud as she rounded the kitchen divide and stood in front of him, staring into his own tripping, unsure look.

His eyes, which she already loved for being so gorgeous, were a thousand times prettier at the moment. Their color refracted, every shift changing them from blue to green and back again. Which wasn’t actually… normal for them to be doing. It wasn’t just his eyes, either, that were magnified. His stare found its focus where Aerith’s fingers ran down the front of his shirt, and when she breathed in, her throat was filled with the tang of grass, sun-sweat, and just _him_ and _his_ musk.

“Wow...” she said, stretching down the fabric of his shirt.

“Uh…”

When Aerith yanked his belt buckle and tugged his belt from the loops of his jeans, Cloud jolted, and uttered, _Whoa._ “O-okay.”

He touched his own hands on both sides of her arms, and suddenly his focus shifted to them, and what he felt. Her skin, burning. “...rith?” Still dizzy, panting, Aerith fumbled more than once to unbutton his stupid, in the way jeans.

“Aerith!”

Cloud seized her arms. Her head wobbled from his sudden grab.

“Whew...” Aerith laughed breathily, lightly grabbing her temple. She’d almost forgotten what she was doing. But she was aware again - mostly of the heady throb, that spread in growing tendrils from between her legs.

She said, “Don’t think… that was your average houseplant...”

“Huh?” said Cloud. “...What’re you talking about? What plant? _Aerith._ What did it look like?”

“It… it looked like… like a stupid jerk!”

Cloud muttered, _Shit,_ when she finished actually describing it.

Aerith groaned and swayed her damp forehead onto Cloud’s chest. His wonderful, chiseled chest. He smoothed a hand between her shoulders to try and comfort, but it didn’t work like he thought. She shivered.

“Well…” she said weakly, “It was nice knowing you, Cloud…”

He huffed. “Aerith. You’ll be fine.”

Before she knew they'd moved, her palms spread themselves on both sides of Cloud's waist, pulling at his shirt that time to reveal a bare strip of his skin, and a shadowed hint of his muscles. She wavered, and took the moment to shake her head and get her focus back. “You know what it was?”

“Yeah… sure wasn’t any plant. I’ve taken bounties on them, before-”

Aerith’s hands smoothed under his shirt to rub up his bare shoulders. They traced down his sturdy spine, and slid flat into his jeans’ back pockets. Cloud’s breath stuttered under Aerith’s groping.

Aerith’s knees almost caved while she groaned again, but Cloud held firmly onto her until she could stand back up. She hit her forehead against his chest, twice, out of frustration.

“How long is this supposed to last for, anyway?” she whined.

The answer was given slowly. From Cloud, shyly. “You can wait it out, but… it’s gonna be a couple of hours.”

_"What!"_

_“_ Otherwise it… lasts until you…”

Oh, _that_ sounded better. Aerith’s lips parted on a gasp, when another dizzying sprout of heat burst inside her at the idea.

“Yeah… let’s go with that.” Aerith bit her lip and started dragging at the denim hem of Cloud’s jeans again.

He stiffened. Then he covered her hands, to hold them immovably in place.

“Wha – C’mon, Cloud!”

“Aerith… Listen, you’re not-”

She placed a stubborn foot between his two boots to bring herself to him. She ground her hips into the bulge between his own. Which made her pinch her eyes shut, and drag her face and open mouth to one side, at the sensation.

 _Shit!_ Cloud instinctively swayed against her, before squeezing his eyes shut too and angling away. “ _Aerith._ ”

“It’s not a big deal," she breathed. "I want you _all_ the time, not just when I’ve been cursed by some stupid plant monster, okay?”

She felt him sigh heavily, from where her head dropped to his chest again. She panted across his shirt from making the effort to keep still. It wasn’t really fair to try and persuade him like _that_ , right then. Feeling like she did for the next couple of hours, though, sounded like the _worst_ idea ever. She just wanted it to be taken care of. She wanted _Cloud_ to take care of it for her. Everything about him was still heightened, still making her desire grow higher and higher upward.

“ _Please,_ Cloud. _Please_ … Just…”

After another moment, gradually, his hands loosened their hold on her.

“…You’re sure?”

Regaining her hands, Aerith slid them to Cloud’s jawline, spreading her fingers to cradle it and his neck alongside. “Yeah. I am really, _really_ sure-”

He sighed again. But there was a small glint of decision in his eyes while he was being forced to stare at her.

Cloud lifted her to sit flush on his waist. Which made Aerith moan from the swift heat that unfurled where they met. She was _so_ sure.

Cloud sat her on the edge of the kitchen table, nudging over one of the chairs with a clatter. Aerith pulled him in by his blond, golden hair, and parted his lips with hers. Cloud hiked her dress up her trembling thighs to her hips, and hooked his fingers under the short sides of her underwear to draw them down.

A glistening dark patch stained the middle of them. There was a dark stain on the tops of Cloud’s cheeks, too, while Aerith twisted her face and panted alongside him, breathing in the skin behind his ear. She trembled, waiting for him.

He stepped between her legs, reaching under her dress again, and Aerith, from Cloud thumbing wetness to her clit, and from his sliding a single one of his fingers inside her – Aerith gasped and came.

She shifted her legs where they’d seized around Cloud’s hips, and unclenched her fists from the back collar of his shirt. Cloud’s face was flushed hotter than before. So was Aerith’s. Her head lolled on his shoulder, while she panted, still sweaty, still dizzy. Overcome, still.

That hadn’t alleviated anything.

“Cloud?” she asked. She heard her own voice lift with her panic. “Why didn’t that-”

Cloud swallowed beside her ear. He explained in a quiet rasp, “It, uh. It might take a couple.”

Aerith whined, “ _Shit._ Seriously?” When she pulled apart from Cloud she swayed, before he caught her on her back. She fumbled again for the slit of his jeans. “ _Cloud –_ I _really_ need-”

“I know.”

He _said_ that, but then he started to _step back_. Aerith latched onto his shoulders and waist, but he continued disengaging himself using his – right then _frustrating_ – super strength.

“Try to stay calm, alright?” He told her, “I’m gonna go get – Just, hold still.”

With a grimace from his own slight discomfort, Cloud shuffled back, then grabbed the rail of the staircase to climb two at a time before thumping upstairs. Aerith thunked the back of her head and shoulders onto the table, while letting out a trilling grumble.

The heat from her skin was _stifling._ So she shoved the straps of her dress off her shoulders and arms, to fold the top half of the whole thing down, letting air touch her bare chest. Gliding a finger between her legs, she felt just how soaked she actually was.

She rubbed her finger on herself, and immediately was on the verge of coming. She rubbed faster, wincing from the sting of it.

Nothing was happening. There was just the constant, agonizing edge.

She hadn’t noticed Cloud come back until she felt his hand gently pull her wrist, then his thumb brush where some of her hot, frustrated tears had slipped from the outside corners of her eyes.

“...Can’t be from your own touch. The pollen, somehow it prevents that.”

“Oh, that little _bastard_.” Cloud’s brow quirked in the middle in silent sympathy.

Cloud was back, and Aerith felt herself yearning toward the heat and glow of his presence again. Everything about him was irresistible, but right then, still unnaturally so. Aerith pinched her eyes shut and asked, “D-did you get-?” He nodded, and she sighed at that small relief.

“ _Hurry..._ ”

Cloud held the condom foil between his teeth, while he ducked his head from his glance at her chest, and reached with both hands for his fly. Aerith’s own hands lifted in the air, before she folded them into fists and held them by her shoulders to not push them into his way. She felt a heavy drip slide out of her, watching him line himself up.

When he pushed and touched inside her walls, Aerith came for the second time.

She yelped. The shiver into her shoulders and neck twisted her head to one side. The tingles spread through her fingers and toes, and she gasped when she realized they weren't wilting away.

Cloud hesitated.

“You have to-” She reached for him, anywhere she could, arching her back and groaning, “You have to keep – Yeah, _yeah_ -”

He started rutting, a couple thrusts later making Aerith come again. “ _Cloud!_ ” It was way too much, and it was so not enough.

She whined at the slide of Cloud’s thumb under the shallow curve of her breast, and his lips on the corner of her jaw. Cloud panted hard himself, forced to a wincing stop now twice from her squeezing around him. He said, low and breathless, “Gonna be okay, Aerith.”

He kept moving.

Aerith quaked all over again. And again.

Then, like the snip of scissors trimming a thorn, she felt the sharp urgency suddenly prune itself away.

Aerith breathed deeply, and sagged against the table. The sweat on her skin felt cool. Her head felt clear. The pressure of Cloud felt plain good. _Finally_ , Aerith thought. When she moaned at the next, it was purely from satisfaction.

Cloud must’ve noticed. Her eyes blinked blearily open when he brushed away some of the damp strands of hair sticking to her forehead, looking down at her with quiet relief himself.

“That, uh… that sounded… better.”

Aerith bit her lip, and laughed softly after from the overwhelming sense of relief. Despite the missing glimmer they’d held before, his eyes were always going to be stunning. “Definitely. Hey, Cloud?”

“What is it?”

Aerith tightened her knees around his waist, pulling him further into her, causing the flutter of his lashes and his near silent whine.

“Don’t stop now, okay?”

He braced himself over her and the table, pressing the breadth of his covered chest to her uncovered one. He nosed along her cheek, and sighed across her skin. And, did as told.

“...Yes, ma’am.”

Aerith gasped at the thick throb of him inside of her. She gasped louder when a thumb graced her clit.

“Uh-huh, w- _way_ better," she stuttered, grinning.

Cloud moaned, his hips finally tripping in pace. He rocked, and strained up and in, as far as he could. From the back of his throat, his breath whined. He glided his thumb one more time, and Aerith's orgasm blossomed throughout her one more time, too.

He was kind of crushing her, then. His breath hitched when he realized, and he pushed himself up onto his arms, muttering, _S-sorry._ Aerith shook her head. Then parted her mouth silently, when Cloud absently stroked one of her bare nipples, and down the skin between her breasts.

Guessing that Aerith would feel oversensitive, he pulled himself out carefully. Aerith sat up and drew her stringy dress straps back onto her shoulders, blushing.

“Well,” she said, “That was sort of fun, wasn’t it?”

Cloud shut his eyes and sagged his shoulders, unimpressed with the playful attitude. “You okay?” he asked, looking back at her.

“Oh, yeah. Lighten up, Cloud – I’m totally fine!” Her grin curled. Cloud ducked in and kissed its corner, cradling the back of her head.

“...Alright,” he whispered. He’d really been worried, huh? Aerith tapped her forehead to his. _Really okay, okay?_ she said. He nodded.

“One to seven,” Aerith quietly uttered in a sing-song tone.

Cloud searched her expression, pulling back slightly. “Huh?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just have to make it up to you six more times, before we’re even.”

His eyes rounded, until he lowered his lids partway over them, giving a gentle shake of his head. Aerith saw the corner of his mouth ease up, finally, though.

After he tucked himself into his jeans and drew Aerith’s dress down to cover her knees, he offered a hand to help her get off the table. He had to catch her when she stumbled and grabbed the bends of his arms to stay standing. She laughed, embarrassed. Also from feeling, when they touched, the tackiness that was spread across the insides of her thighs.

“Think I’m… gonna go take a bath.”

“Need help getting upstairs?”

Aerith shrugged, already stepping away. “Nah, I can handle it – _whoa!_ ”

Cloud came to a halt when Aerith gracefully straightened out of her supposed tumble. She winked. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing at her and her antics. He tipped the fallen over chair back onto its legs, and threw a dish towel over the mess on the table.

“Then I’m gonna go do a sweep.” Cloud lifted his leather harness and guard from where they draped over what was supposed to be a coat rack by the door, and strapped them on over his t-shirt. Then he removed his sword from its lean on the wall and set it on his back. He looked up the stairs at Aerith. “Monster probably wasn’t the only one,” he explained. “That kind's usually with a group.”

Aerith paused, and held the banister. “Maybe you ought to leave _one._ Kidding, kidding!” she said, at Cloud’s raised eyebrow and narrow glare.

Cloud swung open the kitchen door, before she said, “Cloud?” He swiveled his gaze back, his focus on starting the hunt shifting to her instead. Aerith leaned on the rail. “You took care of me. Thanks.”

His look softened. Then Aerith pointed her arm at him.

“Now, go teach that thing a lesson for me!”

Cloud, still standing in the doorway, posed akimbo. Slowly, he smirked.

“Don’t work for free, y’know. If you need to pay in installments, think we agreed six oughta do it, though. Right?”

Through an astonished grin, Aerith gaped at Cloud Strife. “Looking forward to collecting on that,” he said, then, _‘Scuse me_. He grabbed the door handle and saw himself out, still smirking.

**Author's Note:**

> @highfivestrife (nsfw)


End file.
